Dear Parishioners:
Happy Easter! "Alleluia, He has risen! He has risen indeed, Alleluia!" Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who conquered death and rose from the dead, offering eternal life to those who believe. As we read in St. Matthew's Gospel: "The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay."
It must have been a mind-bending experience for the disciples to discover that the tomb was empty and that Jesus had risen from the dead. Nothing could have prepared them for this moment. From the pits of despair they had been in since Good Friday, they faced this awesome event: Jesus was no longer dead but had risen as he had said. And so, as the Gospel tells us, they ran, raced even, to get to the tomb and see for themselves, experience for themselves what Mary had herself experienced. It must have been something awesome.
"O death, where is your victory, O death, where is your sting?" St. Paul writes to the Corinthians. Jesus Christ has conquered death and has been vindicated by God. But so were his disciples vindicated in their fidelity to Jesus, despite the many odds they had faced. The empty tomb eventuality molds out of the early disciples, a community of faith that weathers every storm, persecution, and trial. It does so to bring the Good News of Jesus to others so that they, too, may come to believe and find themselves vindicated as Jesus had been. The rising of the Son of God from the dead is the ultimate proof of the truthfulness of his message.
Easter Sunday is the central point around which the entire Christian faith revolves. It represents, for all of us, the final word spoken by God through his Son, Jesus Christ. And it is a word of promise to all those who follow in the path of Christ, the path of humility and suffering and even death, but a path that ends not in death, but in life eternal. The empty tomb is the real end of the story of Jesus. It is also the point of the story of our own lives; the glory of the resurrection is the promise that awaits us all. On that glorious Easter morning, when the women rush to anoint Jesus' body in the tomb, they discover not a dead Jesus but an angel who tells them that he is no longer there, for he has been raised from the dead. The joy of Easter is what awaits all who remain faithful to God's promise.
As Pope Saint John Paul II teaches: "Christ's resurrection is the strength, the secret of Christianity. It is not a question of mythology or of mere symbolism, but of a concrete event. It is confirmed by sure and convincing proofs. The acceptance of this truth, although the fruit of the Holy Spirit's grace, rests at the same time on a solid historical base. The new effort of evangelization can begin only from a renewed experience of this Mystery, accepted in faith and witnessed to in life."
On this Easter Sunday, as we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, we also celebrate with the ten new Catholics from our parish who were baptized, received communion, confirmed, and received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. St. Maximilian Kolbe said, "The soul is regenerated in the sacred waters of baptism and thus becomes God's child." We are overjoyed for these witnesses of faith as they become children of God who now share in our Catholic faith and live within the family of our Catholic Church. We pray for them that they may continue to grow in faith, hope, and charity. May the blessings of the Risen Christ be theirs this day and always!
As we bask in the glow of the Light of Christ, renewed in the new waters of Easter, and rejoice in our salvation won for us through the death and resurrection of Christ, let us reflect on this ancient Easter Sermon by St. John Damascene:
"Tis the spring of souls today: Christ has burst His prison; And from three days' sleep in death as a Sun has risen. All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying from His light, to whom we give undying laud and praise. Now the queen of seasons, bright with the day of splendor, with the royal feast of feasts comes its joy to render!"
I wish you a very Happy and Holy Easter!